Fed cut to after-school programs would be 'devastating'

President Trump's administration has proposed eliminating $1.1 billion in funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers programs, which provide before-school, after-school and summer school programming targeted at needy children.
Lori Higgins/Detroit Free Press

Southfield Regional Academy student Tatyana Hannah, 18, works on homework during the C2 Pipeline Program after school on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at Southfield Regional Academy in Southfield.(Photo: Rachel Woolf, Special to the Free Press)

Two years ago, Tatyana Hannah was a 16-year-old mother whose school grades were, as she describes it, "really bad." She needed tutoring. She needed support. And she says she got it through an after-school program that's now facing elimination.

"It's made me a better person," Hannah, now 18 and a senior at the Southfield Regional Academic Campus, said of the after-school program run by Wayne State University that's part of a federal initiative to boost the academic, social and emotional needs of needy students.

"I have As and Bs now," Hannah said. "I'm trying to do better, succeed better."

The Trump administration has left programs like this one hovering on the chopping block. His recent budget proposal calls for eliminating $1.1 billion that funds the 21st Century Community Learning Centers that provide before-school, after-school and summer programs that are targeted at low-income, low-performing students nationwide.

In Michigan, more than 26,000 students were served in the program during the 2015-16 school year, according to an evaluation of the program released in March by researchers at Michigan State University.

The potential cut is distressing to the people who work daily in the programs, who worry about the impact on the lives of students who are served.

"This is devastation to urban communities," said Brenda Causey-Mitchell, director of the centers operated by the Pontiac School District, which are called Project Excel. "Unfortunately, these decisions are being made by ... people who have not walked in these kids' shoes."

Southfield Regional Academy student Desmond Ashwood, 16, smiles at program facilitator Kathie Fuller during the C2 Pipeline Program after school on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at Southfield Regional Academy in Southfield.(Photo: Rachel Woolf, Special to the Free Press)

The Michigan centers include 15 run by Wayne State University at schools in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties. The Detroit Public Schools Community District operates 20 centers. In the Pontiac district, there are seven. Many more are operated across the state, run by school districts, community agencies and universities.

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said there would be no immediate solution to replace the funding if it's eliminated.

"The elimination of these programs in particular will reduce high-level programming for students ... This makes little sense when you consider the needs of our children and families," Vitti said.

And it reflects Vitti's overall concern with Trump's education budget, which would eliminate funding for professional development "at a time when that funding is needed most to support the recruitment and retention of leaders and teachers," as well as cuts to Medicaid reimbursements for special education students that Vitti said would cost the district $2 million and could negatively impact students.

Meanwhile, the Trump budget would invest substantially more federal funds to promote school choice, including additional money for the creation of new charter schools and more money to expand programs that allow parents to use public money to enroll their children in private schools.

"The budget's focus is the expansion of choice with little to no accountability," Vitti said. "The lever of the federal government should be used to impact, at scale, improvement for as many schools and students across the country as possible. Relying on a choice-only platform, at best, would possibly impact few students out of millions."

The Trump administration says the 21st century program simply hasn't met its goals and has a low attendance rate, citing a 2004 evaluation of 26 centers operating in 12 school districts nationwide.

Overall program performance, the administration says, shows it's "not achieving its goal of helping students, particularly those who attend low-performing schools, meet challenging state academic standards," according to the budget proposal.

Those connected to the programs have a different perspective. They say many of the students in the program are showing academic improvement. But it's not all about grades, they say.

Success can come in the form of kids graduating on time, having a safe place to go during the after-school hours when parents are working, or being exposed to a multitude of career options.

"It's not only a safe haven while parents are working, it's a safe haven that provides all these opportunities that the students don't have access to," said Vikki Coleman, the director of the centers in Detroit.

"Our goal is that our students become engaged and become responsible citizens, no matter what they do. For us, that's success," said Don Neal, project director for the C² Pipeline program at Wayne State.

The MSU study found that students were highly satisfied with the program, with 80% to 89% saying it helped them with schoolwork, provided them with opportunities to learn in a fun way and improved their attitudes about school and their academic performance.

The percentage of students whose math grades improved while in the program has grown from 32% in 2009-10 to 37% this year; while the percentage whose reading grades improved went from 31% to 32% during the same time period.

It was two years ago that Hannah started attending the C² Pipeline program at her school, an alternative school in Southfield Public Schools. The program provides dinner, exercise, homework assistance, tutoring and activities targeted at STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects that include everything from anatomy to forensics.

Key to the program is the relationships staff build with students.

"They help me out a lot," Hannah said. "I look at them more like family. They're not just teachers."

On Wednesday afternoon, in a classroom full of computers at the Southfield school, Lisa Jome was writing a paper about cancer, a topic she choose to write about for an English language arts class because her grandmother died of lung cancer at the age of 49.

"I come every day," Lisa, 15, said of the after-school program. "I come to do my homework. I don't have a computer at home, so it's helpful."

Southfield Regional Academy student Tristan Pritchett, 17, jumps rope to raise his heart rate during an enrichment activity about heart rates at the C2 Pipeline Program after school on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at Southfield Regional Academy in Southfield.(Photo: Rachel Woolf, Special to the Free Press)

The C² program Wayne State runs comes in multiple forms — an after-school program that runs four days a week at the 15 schools; a summer program that offers camps in a multitude of programs ranging from gross anatomy to biomedical sports medicine, and a summer residential program that brings students from the 15 schools to live on the campus for 11 days, taking classes and participating in projects.

Neal said it's the only 21st Century program in Michigan focused solely on STEM. That was on full display Wednesday, as facilitator Kathie Fuller, a certified teacher, taught the students how to take their pulses, using their wrists and the carotid artery in their necks, how to calculate their resting heart rate and how to calculate their targeted heart rate.

The lesson at times resembled a physical education class, as Fuller had the students moving — playing basketball, twirling hula hoops and jumping ropes — so they could check the difference between their resting heart rate and their heart rate after exercise.

Jovon Alder, the program director for the Southfield center, said students in the program have seen improved academic achievement, have had opportunities to attend STEM camps that wouldn't otherwise have existed and are more likely to go to college.

"I’ve seen so many students that started out struggling, and this program has helped them get into college," Alder said. "It has raised their self-esteem, helped them to develop good study habits and develop lasting friendships."

Several years ago, students participating in the after-school program at Pontiac Middle School achieved national recognition by winning a NASA/U.S. Department of Education challenge in which they developed a game astronauts can play in space.

Today, the program is helping students like seventh-grader Jasmine Hensler, 12. She said that participating in regular concerts, where she gets to dance and sing, have helped her overcome stage fright. The program has also spurred her creativity in arts and crafts projects.

"I've been going to this program for a long time," Jasmine said. "If they take it away, it won't only affect me. It'll affect everyone around me, and the workers. It wouldn't be a good thing."

In the DPSCD, which operates the largest number of centers in Michigan, the programs help "develop a well-rounded child, physically, emotionally, socially and academically," Coleman said.

The centers also include a family component, including workshops for parents based on their needs. In some cases, it could be financial literacy. In others, it can be workshops on how to help their children with homework.

"Our goal is not only to impact just that one student, but to impact the community," Coleman said.